Japanese car auction finds: 1962 Ford Falcon Ranchero
The reason this pick-up looks so much like a sedan in profile is that the Ford Falcon Ranchero pick-up was derived from the sedan model.
This one is a 1962 model, but confusingly the auction in Japan has it listed as a 1998 vehicle.
So, what’s the deal with that? It seems to make no sense, but then you need to remember that the car auctions in Japan will always list the year of first registration rather than the year the vehicle was made.
With classic cars like this, its pretty easy to spot right away. But you have to be careful with other non-Japanese brand cars in general, and gray import cars in particular. You may find the car was built one year, but not imported until the next for example.
Like this Ford Falcon Ranchero, you can often see the year of manufacture on the auction sheet, but another way would be to use a VIN decoder, with the 10th digit of a modern VIN number often telling you what the year of manufacture was.
Anyway, although I’m not so keen on the overall design of the Ranchero, I do like the period paint job and interior on this one.
Take a look and tell me what you think in the comments below:
(c) Integrity Exports Co. Ltd. – Japan car auction buyer and exporter.
